Look out, your U-verse service is about to get naggy. With the newly launched TV Notes feature, you can send messages to any connected display in the house, either by set-top box or mobile phone if you’re out, and they’ll pop up in a hard-to-ignore spot on your screen. There’s also a scheduling option for setting messages to arrive at a specific time on a given channel or on a repeat basis. Oh, and blocking out the entire screen with one of these reminders is possible, too — perfect for telling the kids to dust the 65-inch plasma instead of just watching it.
Rogers’ patience in finding a replacement CEO has paid off in spades. The Canadian telecom giant has just confirmed that Guy Laurence, Vodafone UK’s current chief executive, will be its new leader as of December 2nd. The hire gives Rogers a CEO who’s not only well-versed in mobile and media services, but has a reputation as a reformer — he shook up Vodafone UK’s corporate culture shortly after taking the reins in 2008. While it’s not certain that he’ll repeat history at Rogers, we wouldn’t expect him to maintain the status quo for very long.
So, while Google Glass: Explorer and Prescription editions are designed to sit on the right side of your head, wouldn’t it be great if the wearable was, you know, built into an actual pair of glasses? That’s the thinking behind Mountain View’s latest patent, which incorporates the device into a thick pair of specs. Compared to the current versions, this concept (pictured, after the break) splits the camera and display modules across the frame. Presumably, therefore, wiring would run inside the frame and across the nose bridge — and we’d hope that the greater real estate would also accommodate a bigger battery. While this particular design may never get further than a pile of paper on Sergey Brin’s desk, the near-sighted futurists among us can always hope.
Vodafone has confirmed that hackers have accessed its servers in Germany, gaining access to personal information and bank details of approximately two million customers. The operator says the breach was a “highly sophisticated and illegal intrusion” that it believes was masterminded by an insider — and indeed a suspect has already been identified and handed over to police. It’s not often you hear about a successful raid on a mobile operator, which is why Vodafone believes it could only have been conducted by someone with an “inside knowledge of [its] most secure internal systems.” Vodafone customers outside of Germany aren’t affected, and those inside the country should already have been contacted. The company says credit card information, mobile phone numbers, passwords and PIN numbers were not accessed in the attack, although Vodafone is warning customers to be especially vigilant about potential phishing attacks in the future.
The topic of inflight WiFi often comes with mixed feelings. The connectivity is nice to have, but there is often a high price to pay for what amounts to speeds that are way slower than many would hope to see. Anyway, the name that often comes to mind for connecting while in the cloud is […]
As it struggles to expand its 4G LTE, AT&T is spending $1.9 billion in cash for unused spectrum from its biggest rival, Verizon. This upgrade will improve service for some 42 million people in 18 states thanks to an additional 39 700MHz licenses. This bodes well for AT&T’s ambition to offer 4G LTE to 270 million people by the end of the year.
If recent smartphone launches have you reconsidering your carrier options, here’s some 4G rollout info to throw into the mix. Unlike its rivals, Three is actively advertising its full LTE roadmap, focusing first on London, Birmingham, Manchester and Reading, which it hopes to switch on before the end of the year. Its plans for 2014 are much more expansive, however, with a total of 42 cities set to go live, covering 98 percent of the country by 2015. Although it’ll launch some months after its rivals, the carrier may scoop up customers with a promise not to charge extra for 4G data. Finally, as to whether Three will eventually change its name to Four, the company still isn’t saying.
Wireless chargers already exist, but I’m not a big fan of the current setup because it’s not convenient at all. Sure, you don’t have to plug anything to your device, but today’s inductive chargers require that the device being charged remain in contact with the charging dock or platform. That leaves your device more tethered than if you used a charging cable. But what if wireless charging worked like Wi-Fi? That’s what a company called Ossia is working on.
Founded by physicist Hatem Zeine, Ossia is working on a wireless charging technology that it calls Cota. Like today’s inductive charging systems, Cota requires a power transmitter as well as a receiver on the device to be charged. Zeine claims that the receiver can be made small enough to fit inside gadgets and even AAA batteries. Best of all – and this is the trillion dollar claim of Ossia – the Cota transmitter can supposedly power devices up to 30 ft. away. Furthermore, Zeine claims that Cota is as harmless as Wi-Fi, it works through walls and it can charge multiple devices at once. In other words, it’s just like having a Wi-Fi router except this one sends electricity. You can skip to around 2:30 in the video below to see Zeine demonstrate Cota:
Wow. If Cota takes off, future mobile devices won’t need high capacity batteries, because we’ll be able to charge them all the time. Just imagine how convenient that would be.
Numerous regional US carriers have called for AT&T to support their 700MHz bands, which would give them the LTE devices and roaming coverage they need to compete with national rivals. These networks may soon get their wish: as part of an FCC-led deal, AT&T has agreed to support LTE on the 700MHz A Block frequencies held by smaller providers. While AT&T is short on details, it’s already modifying its network to support the additional bands. Compatible devices will arrive in a “reasonable time frame,” the telecom giant says. The commitment doesn’t address LTE interoperability problems with Verizon and other major US networks, but it should help at least a few tiny carriers stand a fighting chance in the 4G era.
The iPhone 5s and 5c announcements were the big stories at today’s Apple event, but let’s not lose sight of the things that really matter — like the iPhone’s accompanying cases, of course. Jesting aside, both smartphones received a full lineup of colorful cases that not only add a degree of protection to the phones but also throw in another element of personalization that’s become so prevalent in the mobile industry lately.
While the case designed for the 5s seems to be your standard leather enclosure (with five total hues offered), the design for Apple’s iPhone 5c case is much more interesting. It’s a mesh-style plastic that’s a little less rigid than the 5s option (though still reasonably sturdy), but the more important part of the accessory is its back, which initially reminded us more of a game of Connect Four than an actual case. It involves a series of 35 circles arranged in a 7×5 grid. This design offers a two-toned color scheme, with the 5c body providing one hue and the case providing the other. As you can see, Apple’s putting a very heavy emphasis on the importance of color, and the company is trying to back up its focus with some vibrant oomph. We played with a few different color combinations after today’s event, so check out our gallery of images below to see what you think.
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